Cover art by Arie Pytel
B’shnorkestra
Go to Orange
Present Sounds Recordings
B’shnorkestra is the creation of trumpeter Samantha Boshnack. This 14-piece orchestra contains Seattle musicians, from all walks of genre, woven together by Boshnack to voice a gorgeous quilt of expression. Featured on the release: Joshua Kohl (conductor), Alex Guy, Alina To (violins), Brianna Atwell (viola), Maria Scherer Wilson, Daniel Mullikin (cellos), Jherek Bischoff, Tim Carey (upright basses), Boshnack (trumpet/flugelhorn), Chris Credit (alto/tenor saxophones), Tobi Stone (tenor saxophone/flute), Greg Campbell (French horn/percussion/drums), Adam Kozie (percussion/xylophone/drums), Lalo Bello (congas), Paris Hurley (violin solo), Megan O’Donoghue-Williams (vocals), Sri Joko Raharjo (gender/rebab).
Go to Orange, the first studio album by B’shnorkestra, effortlessly switches pulses from celebratory to contemplative to raw. The title track, “Go to Orange,” sets the tone for the entire album: it blends grandiose folk exploration with a marching purpose. Through the song’s driving percussion, subtle jazz influence, and dense thematic layering, we’re transported to composer Boshnack’s world. On “Skarkiselk,” we’re shown just how dirty this album can get. The listener is thrown from the chair of beautiful, patient harmonies into the pit of rockin’ drums, chaotic strings, and stank sax, all the while keeping the arrangements in vibrant color.
More about Go to Orange and Samantha Boshnack at boshnackmusic.com.
– Bryan Lineberry
Glenn Crytzer’s Savoy Seven
Focus Pocus & A Little Love This Christmas
Self-released
Focus Pocus is guitarist Glenn Crytzer’s Savoy Seven debut, with all original tunes composed, performed and recorded in the style of bands of the 1940s. Downright slick vintage pop-jazz by Crytzer, with group Mike Davis (trumpet), Evan Arntzen (clarinet/tenor), Craig Flory (alto), Solomon Douglas (piano), Jen Hodge (bass), Julian MacDonough (drums).
Ready for swing dancers, “All That I Can Give You Is a Melody” draws partners so close that a whisper would thunder. Here, Crytzer and band sink sweetly into the pocket and just let you enjoy the moment. Also included, zeitgeist folk anthem “The Grass Is Always Greener (If You’re High),” a lighthearted reinforcement of troubles we share, and the way we might choose to work through them.
Also recently released: Crytzer’s A Little Love This Christmas, seven holiday tunes. Half of sales go to the Jazz Foundation of America.
More on Glenn Crytzer and groups at glenncrytzer.com.
– BL
Heatwarmer
Heatwarmer
Self-released
Magically wicked post-Zappa epic indie-prog by bassist and UW music professor Luke Bergman, with improvised music catalysts Kristian Garrard, Aaron Otheim, Andrew J.S. and Evan Woodle, plus many guests. A dynamic, sonically dense circus of heartfelt songs, Heatwarmer puts us deep into the ring of Bergman’s big top. Often like a dream about to spin out of control, before you hear Bergman’s voice calling from somewhere, Heatwarmer comforts just long enough to let explore the zany, fantastical dream.
Opening track “Magic Hearts” is what the album is all about: flying synthesizers, legendary line arrangements, infectious and syncopated rhythms, dizzying time play, hummable melodies, and glockenspiel. “Rejoice” is a smiling head-nodder with a steady rhythm wrapped in between an epic rock opera’s beginnings and endings before resolving.
More at heatwarmer.net.
– BL
Christian Pincock
Plentiful Excitement
Self-released
A fine neo-mainstream disc, Pincock’s Plentiful Excitement features the valve trombonist with three colleagues from his three years in New Mexico, where he taught music and music-for-dance at the University of New Mexico. Robert Muller (piano), Mark Weaver (tuba) and Rick Compton (drums) all contribute impressively to Pincock’s pieces, which are assured, nuanced and plainly enchanting.
The album demonstrates the benefit of long gestation. Pincock developed the pieces over up to a decade, revising them and testing them with various band configurations to the point of impressively balanced, solid execution.
More at christianpincock.net.
– Peter Monaghan
Michael Coleman /
Jacob Zimmerman
Today the World Is Old
Self-released
A piano and saxophone duo album dedicated to Paul Motian, Today the World Is Old, by Coleman and Zimmerman, explores early 20th century popular song, in the spirit of Motian’s On Broadway albums. The duo notes that track “Last Night When We Were Young” deeply inspired and challenged them.
More at jacobrexzimmerman.com.
Amy Denio
Prodigal Light
Spoot Music
A reflective, joyful and eclectic release by multi-instrumentalist Amy Denio, Prodigal Light features Denio on vocals and playing 12-string and electric guitars, bass, alto saxophone, clarinet, wooden flute, accordion, piano, a variety of percussion instruments, and a jar of her mother’s gallstones, plus many guests from around the world.
More at amydenio.com.
Industrial Revelation
Oak Head
Self-released
Industrial Revelation’s latest release, Oak Head, recombines the efforts of renowned, all-round-town musicians D’Vonne Lewis (drums), Evan Flory-Barnes (bass), Josh Rawlings (keyboards), and Ahamefule J. Oluo (trumpet) for a deeply sincere head-bopping, foot-tapping listening pleasure.
Much of the album has you slipping on your dancing shoes. “The Lake” puts an infectious upbeat rhythm into your body, pushed by Lewis’s swingin’ toms and Flory-Barnes’s jumping bass lines. “Saying Goodbye (to rainbow socks and hair dye)” shows IR’s willingness to step back and let their music breathe on its own. It’s that song you’ll hear in your head while driving home late at night, lost in reflection of events playing again and again in your mind’s eye, never wanting to let them go. The tune is by Flory-Barnes and manifests through an egoless, largely improvised line of musical communication led by the reflective flugelhorn of Oluo. Each member understands the weight of their own voices here and lets Lewis’s groove carry them from there.
Stream and buy the album at industrialrevelation.com.
– BL
Steve Treseler Group
Center Song
CMA Records
For Center Song, Steve Treseler is joined by BC-born, New York-based trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and the rhythm section of pianist Dawn Clement, guitarist Chris Spencer, bassists Jon Hamar (double bass) and Dean Schmidt (electric) and drummer Steve Korn, with guests Dan Kramlich on piano and cellist Meg Risso.
Treseler’s concept for this album explores musical contradiction, as held by the artist, such as tradition and innovation. It looks to convey the “same musical universe” using alternate perspectives. This concept gives Center Song an incredible breadth of brilliantly executed styles.
“Cold Hammered” easily could have come out of the 50s, with its swingin’ feel and blazing solos. “11,000 Miles” is a modern ballad written about former Banff bandmates of Treseler’s, now separated by worldly distances.
More at stevetres.com.
– BL
